Adolescence.by G. Stanley Hall

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Adolescence. by G. Stanley HallReview by: E. A. KirkpatrickThe Journal of Philosophy, Psychology and Scientific Methods, Vol. 1, No. 25 (Dec. 8, 1904),pp. 687-693Published by: Journal of Philosophy, Inc.Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2012199 .

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PSYCHOLOGY AND SCIENTIFIC METHODS 687

say it because I sincerely believe that the English spirit in philosophy is intellectually, as well as practically and morally, on the saner, sounder and truer path. Kant's mind is the rarest and most intricate of all possible antique bric-a-brac museums; and connois- seurs and dilettanti will always wish to visit it and see the wondrous and racy contents. The temper of the dear old man about his work is perfectly delectable. And yet he is really-although I shrink with some terror from saying such a thing before some of you here present-at bottom a mere curio, a 'specimen.' I mean by this a perfectly definite thing: I believe that Kant bequeathes to us not one single conception which is both indispensable to philosophy and which philosophy either did not possess before him, or was not des- tined inevitably to acquire after him through the growth of men's reflection upon the hypotheses by which science interprets nature. The true line of philosophic progress lies, in short, it seems to me, not so much through Kant as round him to the point where now we stand. Philosophy can perfectly well outflank him, and build her- self up into adequate fullness by prolonging more directly the older English lines.

WILLIAM JAMES. HARVARD UNIVERSITY.

REVIEWS AND ABSTRACTS OF LITERATURE

Adolescence. Its Psychology and its Relation to Physiology, Anthropol- ogy, Sociology, Sex, Crime, Religion and Education. G. STANLEY HALL, Ph.D., LL.D., President of Clark University and Professor of Psychology and Pedagogy. New York, D. Appleton and Co. 1904. Vol. I., pp. 589; Vol. II., pp. 784. In the preface Dr. Hall says, " The genetic ideas of the soul which

pervade this work are new in both matter and method, and if true they mark an extension of evolution into the psychic field of the utmost im- portance." He emphasizes the necessity of studying life and history and says, " We must collect states of mind, sentiments, phenomena long since lapsed, psychic facts that appear faintly and perhaps but once in a life- time and that in few and only rare individuals, impulses that, it may be, never anywhere arise above the threshold, but manifest themselves only in automatisms, acts, behavior, things neglected, trivial and incidental, such as Darwin says are often most vital. We must go to school to the folk- soul, learn of criminals and defectives, animals, and in some sense go back to Aristotle in rebasing psychology on biology, and realize that we know the soul best when we can best write its history in the world and that there are no finalities save formuloe of development. The soul is thus still in the making and we may hope for an indefinite further development. ... In a word, the view here represents a nascent tendency



688 THE JOURNAL OF PHILOSOPHY

and it is in striking contrast to all those systems that presume to have attained even an approximate finality. But the twilight is that of dawn and not that of evening. It is the morning hour of beginning and not that of completing the day of work, and this can appeal only to those still adolescent in soul."

The reader who notices attentively the subtitle and the above portion of the preface will be in part prepared for the extraordinary breadth of treatment given every phase of the subject and the marshaling of facts, often exceptional rather than typical, from every field of science, literature and life in a way to suggest countless possibilities with only slight attempts at final conclusions or ultimate points of view.

His conception of the relation of the past history of the race to individual development and to educational practice, and his semi-poetic, semi- technical style are well illustrated by the following passages: " Thus the

boy is father of the man in a new sense that his qualities are infinitely older and existed, well compacted, untold ages before the more distinctly human attributes were developed. Indeed there are a few indications set forth in the text of a yet earlier age-nodality or meristic segmenta- tion, as if amid the increased instabilities of health at the age of about six we could still detect the ripple marks of an ancient pubic beach now lifted high above the tides of a receding shore line as human infancy has been prolonged."

" The teacher's art should so vivify all that the resources of literature, traditions, history can supply which represents the crude virtues of the world's childhood, that with his almost visual imagination, reinforced by psychonomic recapitulatory impulses, the child can enter upon his full

heritage, live out each stage of his life to the fullest and realize in himself all its manifold tendencies. Echoes only of the vaster, richer life of the remote past of the race they must remain but just these are the

murmurings of the only muse that can save from the omnipresent dangers of precocity."

Dr. Hall calls this essentially his first book and says: " It has grown slowly under successive repetitions and amplifications as a lecture course to graduate students. It constitutes the first attempt to bring together the various aspects of its vast and complex theme. In revising these lectures for publication, I have eliminated much that was technical and detailed and tried to bring the subject-matter within the reach of any intelligent reader."

The latter statement may be questioned by some readers as they en- counter one technical term after another. The following words taken from a single chapter give some idea of the stupendous vocabulary pos- sessed by our author and the extent to which he carries the technical terms of every science over into the psychic field of thought: hetero-

chrony, virified, transvaluation, catharsis, psychonomic, psychophores, archaeology, phylogenetic, entelechy, photodermatism, psychromes, vicari-

ate archeopsychism, phyletic, solipsistic, meristic, apical, ancillary, soterio-

logical, efflorescence, neopsychic, dotations, viaticum, protensive, pathic, erethic diathesis, disphoria, atrabiliar, ephebeitis, ego-centric, altro-centric,




pithecoid, troglodyles, monophyletic, amphimixis, erogamy, cunabula, superanthropoid.

The first chapter treats exhaustively of growth in height and weight, and in it are given all the chief theories, tables, conclusions and practical applications regarding the nature of growth and the factors influencing it that have been put forth by investigators of every nationality. These, however, are not critically examined and closely correlated, yet no oppor- tunity is missed to emphasize the theory expressed in the following: " Through all the latter stages of his growth we can almost fancy that in the individual arrests and accelerations that make up its minor rhythms we detect the ripple marks on successive old shore lines which represent once final stages and emergence to maturity, but which are now succes- sively transcended."

The second chapter treats in an equally exhaustive manner of the growth of parts and emphasizes the following points: (1) " Parts do not grow in equal ratio." (2) " Few parts grow steadily." (3) " Not only do different parts reach their maximal size at different ages but some con- tinue to grow well on into old age." (4) "It is well to remember that from a larger biological view, every higher animal is not only composed of organs phyletically old and new but that the order of their evelop- ment may even be changed." (5) " In the present state of the question between preformation and epigenesis we shall assume that the earlier stages of life are more conformable to Weismannism and the later to the views of Hertwig."

It is rather surprising that answers to questionnaires regarding growth are quoted almost as if on a par with tables constructed from thousands of exact measurements.

Chapter III., on 'Growth of Motor Power and Function,' is equally exhaustive, better correlated and full of excellent practical suggestions, treating as it does of industrial and manual training, gymnastics, plays and games and their broader social and educational significance.

Chapter IV. treats of disease of body and mind, particularly with ref- erence to adolescent changes, with a fullness of technical detail that should be suggestive to well-read physicians as well as to educators, though exceptional cases are given great prominence.

Chapter V. tells of every possible juvenile fault, immorality and crime, and presents countless theories as to causes and modes of cure. The following is one of the best expressions of the author's view: "Educators have no doubt vastly overestimated the moral efficiency of the three R's and forgotten that character in infancy is all instinct: that in childhood it is slowly made over into habits: while at adolescence more than at any other period of life it can be cultivated through ideals. The dawn of puberty, although perhaps marked by a certain moral hebetude, is soon followed by a stormy period of great agitation when the very worst and best impulses in the human soul struggle against each other for its pos- session and when there is a peculiar proneness to be either very good or very bad. As the agitation slowly subsides it is found that there has




been a renaissance of either the best or the worst elements of the soul, if not indeed of both."

'Sexual Development and Its Dangers and Hygiene in Boys' have probably never received as full, absolutely frank and sane treatment as is given in chapter VI., while chapter VII. on 'Periodicity' is chiefly a continuation of the discussion of certain phases of the sex problem im- portant in the life of females, and, perhaps, of some significance in the life of males.

Greek literature, history, autobiography, Shakespeare and modern literature are cited and quoted at length in chapter VIII., as sources of

descriptions of adolescents. In chapter IX. we have a summary of all experiments showing changes

with age in the senses and the voice together with their diseases and training. Chapter X., on 'Evolution and the Feelings and Instincts Characteristic of Normal Adolescence,' gives, also, a preliminary statement of Dr. Hall's philosophical and psychological theories that are

implied all through these two volumes and are to receive fuller treatment in a subsequent work.

In chapter XI. not only 'Adolescent Love' but pre-adolescent love receives very full treatment, and here, as in nearly every chapter, the close relation of sexual functions to mental activities is emphasized.

Chapter XII., on 'Adolescent Feelings toward Nature,' contains much that is interesting and poetical, but little that is scientific, being based almost wholly on answers to questionnaires as to thoughts and fancies regarding the sun, moon, light, darkness, water, flowers, etc.

Chapter XIII. treats of 'Savage Pubic Initiations, Classical Ideals and Customs and Church Confirmation.'

Chapter XIV., on 'Adolescent Psychology of Conversion,' emphasizes the closeness of relation of religious and sexual development (which has been shown in a number of recent studies) to which Dr. Hall first called attention.

The first part of chapter XV., on 'Social Instincts and Institutions,' is largely based on recent questionnaires sent out from Clark, and contains little in addition to what has already been published; while the latter part has some good suggestions regarding college, religious and other organizations, and the relation of debates, rhetoric, reading and acting to social and mental development.

Chapter XVI., on 'Intellectual Development and Education,' treats almost wholly of education and the relation of educational practices to interests and the stages of development at each stage. According to his view formal education should begin at eight and end at twelve, while

training during adolescence should be broad and inspiring, rather than

deep and accurate. Chapter XVII., on 'Adolescent Girls and their Education,' treats very

fully of the differences between man and woman and very suggestively of female education and of coeducation. Chapter XVIII. is on ' Adoles- cent Races and their Treatment.'

On the whole the book is one easy to praise enthusiastically or to




criticize mercilessly according to the point of view taken. Those who care only for a science and a pedagogy that are systematic, accurate and well established, probably will find in these two bulky volumes nothing that they regard as scientifically reliable or pedagogically practical. Anything in science that is thought to be completely settled is, to Dr. Hall, a thing of no interest or the object of an attack designed to unsettle it. As the great Edison loses all interest in his machines as soon as they work perfectly, so Dr. Hall has no use for a field of science or a pedagogy that is regarded as complete. He delights in bringing together the most diverse facts and theories, suggesting various practical applications, yet grouped in such a way as to emphasize the vaguely known and half- guessed experiences of the remote human and animal ancestors of man. His generalizations are usually accompanied by a 'perhaps,' and in most cases are most enthusiastically affirmed when they are broadest, most indefinite and least readily testable by experiments. Systematizers will, therefore, find much in the book to criticize and little to commend, while to others it will be a wonderfully suggestive revelation.

Dr. Hall everywhere emphasizes the unusual, abnormal, hidden, over the common, usual and evident in fact and explanation. All this is in accord with his views expressed in the preface. This practice is also undoubtedly most favorable to success as a leader of young investigators who are so likely to accept the system of their instructor, if he has one. Probably Dr. Hall's natural tendency of mind has been consciously developed in this direction by his knowledge of this fact and the origin of the book in lectures to men engaged in original research. Certainly no man of his age, if indeed of any age, has been a more inspiring leader of young investigators. A very large proportion of all investigations in genetic psychology and pedagogy in America, during the last score of years, has been carried out under his direction or is the result, directly or indirectly, of his influence.

If Dr. Hall had devoted the great powers of his mind to the working out of a system and the establishment of a few general principles, he

might himself have made a much more valuable contribution to exact science, but then much of the work already done and yet to be done as the result of his influence would have been delayed and perhaps would never have been done. If Dr. Hall's name does not go down to future ages as that of a great philosopher and scientist it may be because he has given up his life to inspiring others to investigate and think and to the dissemination of broader views of education among the parents and teachers of America.

The one theory to be established in all Dr. Hall's writings and to which, should it ever be established, his name will be forever attached, is the theory of psychic recapitulations which is graphically and almost poetically expressed in the following quotations: "The psychonomic law which assumes that we are influenced in our deeper, more temperamental dispositions by the life habits and codes of conduct of we know not what unnumbered hosts of ancestors, which like a cloud of witnesses are pres-




ent throughout our lives, and that our souls are echo chambers in which their whispers reverberate."

"We have to deal with the archeology of mind, with zones or strata which precede consciousness as we know it, compared to which even it and especially cultured intellect is an upstart novelty with everywhere a fuller and clearer expression of a part of the soul but always partial, one- sided and more accidental and precarious."

"It is well not to entirely forget that in the great cosmic order re- vealed to the evolutionist, the mind which modern analysis so carefully dissects, may be merely a development stage of that of a higher type."

" Man can with difficulty form any conception of how the world appeared to the majority of even existing types: what their senses were and could do: what perceptive elements they were sensitized to: what their instincts and organs were: how they reared their young, obtained their food, mated, fought their enemies, organized their societies, etc. Many of them are in our pedigree and we inherit the stored result of this experience but of how it was stored up we know little. Our own soul is full in all its parts of faint hints, rudimentary specters flitting for an instant at some moment of our individual life, then gone forever."

This is interesting, stimulating, yet sadly indefinite, and we are

compelled to admit that the theory lacks the definiteness of a scientific hypothesis. It gives us no idea of the law by which the psychic traits of our human and animal ancestors are preserved or suppressed, and their consequent prominence determined in the mind of man to-day. We are left with no other guide than speculative fancy. Each man is free to seize upon whatever 'fleeting specter' of the past he pleases and speculate as to its source as Dr. Hall does, but no knowledge of the laws governing the common and constant activities of the mind can thus be established for science or for education. The Newton of psychology has not yet appeared, though Dr. Hall has probably shaken the tree under which he is to reflect.

As a whole, the work is probably more of a contribution to education than to psychology. Education is as much an art as a science, and its

highest forms are as far beyond any principles that can be formulated and mechanically applied as are the works of great poets and artists. Dr. Hall is as much an artist as a scientist, and his vision of what education should be and may do in the future, inspired by his wonderful survey of the past and present activities of the race, may be a prevision of what will sooner or later be established as most fundamental in educational principles and practices. At present, however, it must be admitted that his views are not established by definite, reliable, scientific data. Whether his conclusions are correct or not, it is to be regretted that much of the questionnaire data, so relied upon by Dr. Hall, has not been secured or tabulated according to the most approved statistical and scientific methods.

On the other hand, no one has ever taken such a broad biogenetic view of education as has Dr. Hall, and his Yankee guesses may be better than some of the mechanical, scientific calculations of other investigators.




However this may be, such a broad and inspiring view of education as Dr. Hall has given in his lectures and published papers and manuscripts, and now summed up in these two volumes, can not fail to be in the future, as it has been in the past, a great leavening force in psychology and all educational thought and practice from the kindergarten to the university.

E. A. KIRKPATRICK. STATE NORMAL SCHOOL, FITCHBURG, MASS.

On Truth and Practice. F. H. BRADLEY. Mind, July, 1904, pp. 309-354. Humanism and Truth. WILLIAM JAMES. Mind, October, 1904, pp. 457-

475. In the July number of Mind, Mr. Bradley gives recognition to the

new philosophy of pragmatism in an article on 'Truth and Practice.' (1) Truth does not consist in bare practical effects. It does not always subserve practice directly; and even where, as is the case in the begin- nings of thought, it has an existence only as the idea works practically, its essence is not in such working. It is able to work because it is the right idea. The idea makes the situation different, but the entire nature of the situation was not first made by the idea. If it is to work, it must correspond to a determinate being which it can not be said to make; and in this correspondence consists the essence of truth. This is shown, on the positive side, by the compulsion we are under from the situation in the choice of means to an end; and, negatively, in the case of failures, where there is a recognition of truth which certainly is not an 'idea which works.' (2) Objection is taken to the theory of practice for practice's sake. The meaning of practice is ambiguous. Defining it as the alteration by me of existence inward or outward, all truth is in a sense practical. It is practical, too, in that it depends upon a need or an interest in me. But among the ways in which my nature is realized, there are some-the pursuit of theoretical truth, and beauty-which may be called non-practical. They involve the alteration of being only incident- ally, and are not subordinate to an external end. The moral end may dictate their pursuit and set limits to it, but their nature falls outside moral control. In a further examination of the various senses in which we may subordinate truth to practice, Mr. Bradley tries to show that there is always something outstanding in the way of a theoretical truth, which dictates to practice.

In the October number, Professor James makes a reply. As, however, he finds Mr. Bradley's paper wholly irrelevant and unedifying, his answer takes the form of a restatement of his own position. Humanism takes its rise in the changed attitude toward scientific truth. This is no longer regarded as a literal transcript of something in nature, but as a human

device, a conceptual shorthand, true so far as useful, but no farther.

Generalizing this, we have the new pragmatical philosophy. The notion of a first in the shape of a chaotic pure experience which sets us ques- tions, of a second in the way of fundamental categories, long ago wrought into the structure of our experience and practically irreversible, which define the general frame within which answers must fall, and of a third



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Adolescence.by G. Stanley Hall